WHETHER you agree with them or not, it’s hard not to admire the guts of these two men from different sides of the sectarian fence in Nothern Ireland – Denis Bradley and Raymond McCord. Often rejected by their ‘own’ communities, both have shown extraordinary courage at great personal cost in recent times.Addressing the home crowd at the SDLP annual conference, Bradley – who took a horrific beating for his support for the police recently – acknowledged the 50/50 recruitment quota for the PSNI would have to end.
Meanwhile, McCord defied a ‘on-ceasefire’ UVF death threat to see a man he believes was involved in his son’s murder face a judge. As new evidence finally comes forward – perhaps as the State tries to quickly wrap up the ‘loyalist problem’ before Christmas – McCord still finds himself somewhat hung out to dry, by unionists… although he battles on, in his own hard-nosed way.
The fact that the BBC search engine didn’t bring up any results for ‘Raymond McCord’ (on my PC anyway), despite him being mentioned on it a number of times, kind of typifies someone who hasn’t used a major publicity campaign , which the McCartney sisters benefited from in their justice campaign.
Uphill struggles all round.
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